Hour of the Malfoys
by Rumour of an Alchemist
Summary: Alternate Universe. Eighteen months before the end of the first Wizarding War, Lucius Malfoy gains considerably foreknowledge of how the future 'could' play out. The question is as to how to take advantage of it? One-shot.


Disclaimer: I am not J. K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter. I am not (as far as I know) making any money out of this fanfiction. The only profit I derive is the warm fuzzy feeling that accompanies a nice review and the traffic stats which indicate that some people are apparently reading these things.

Note: The following concerns the end of the (first) Wizarding War in an alternate universe where (either by time-travel or highly detailed prophetic vision) Lucius Malfoy has gained foreknowledge of events. It loosely assumes events of canon with some deviations (other than the foreknowledge) as artistic liberties which I'll try to acknowledge in the Author Notes section at the end. This is a one-shot.

* * *

Lucius Malfoy woke with an unpleasant start to a smell of something almost burning. An hourglass on a nearby shelf – supposedly a relic of the days of Merlin and Morgana when a distant ancestor had done an important favour for someone important – had blackened and melted into a pool of molten slag, charring the highly polished wood. It had never done much before except sit around the family homes of successive generations of Malfoys – an _objet_ which was clearly heavily magical but seemed impossible to activate.

Lucius drew his wand and dumped a jet of water all over the smouldering remains before getting up to inspect them cautiously. If the item had been enchanted to be some sort of booby-trap it had failed to do anything except give him a singularly unpleasant dream. Everything had been going so well for so many years and then a sudden downward spiral had seen Lucius defeated by a group of meddlesome school-children and tossed into Azkaban in disgrace. The dream had ended with him screaming in the dementor shadowed gloom of an Azkaban cell.

Lucius frowned. _Had_ it been just a dream? Or some sort of prophetic warning?

He summoned a house-elf to clear up the remains of the hourglass, and to double-check what day it was? It turned out to be the first of May 1980. That was odd. He'd had a lingering impression for some reason that it was years beyond that.

Lucius dismissed the house elf and sank back into his chair to close his eyes and think. Just suppose, for a moment, that the hourglass had shown him a vision of the future in which the ruin of the Malfoy family had occurred, or that the artefact had even – Merlin knew how – actually snatched him back from a point in such a future to here and now at the cost of its own destruction. He needed to test the accuracy of the impressions he had of how events _could_ play out, and then to be able to turn it to Malfoy family advantage. Of course, any major changes which he made would likely render later information increasingly less useful.

And he was going to have to work out how to handle the situation with regard to the Dark Lord _very_ carefully. The Dark Lord, if informed of anything at all, would _not_ be pleased by any mention of a vision which suggested he could be defeated – or setback even – for a decade or so.

Lucius would have to let events involving the Dark Lord personally play through with minimum input or interference from himself (beyond the limits of credible and deferential suggestions) – at least until the prophesised boys situation he recalled as coming to an at least temporary head next year had come and gone.

* * *

The birth and circumstances surrounding it of Draco Lucius Malfoy on the fifth of June, 1980, did more than give Lucius a sense of déjà-vu – it outright convinced him that his experience of the start of May of that year had been at least partially prophetic vision or some form of time-travel. Too much had matched up, exactly, down to including an incident involving one of the midwives and some rather choice and unusual language that Narcissa had used in the throes of giving birth. Consequently, by the start of 1981 Lucius had adopted a double-game. He used things he recalled from what he thought of now as his 'hourglass experience' to try and improve the Dark Lord's plans where he might be amenable to creative input from minions, whilst getting himself made the Dark Lord's liaison with Dumbledore, routinely delivering threats to Dumbledore which were in fact cryptic warnings, saying more than the surface message. Whilst the Dark Lord seemed to appreciate Lucius' efforts, and Lucius figured that the Death Eaters were currently two or three agents better off than in his hourglass experience, Dumbledore apparently was taking the threats at face value, and not bothering to dig around beneath the surface. Lucius was looking forward to telling the old coot 'I told you so' if the Dark Lord _did_ meet with a mishap whilst going after the Potter or Longbottom boy.

The fact that he might have something even remotely resembling limited foreknowledge of what was to happen, Lucius kept strictly to himself, of course, and as far as possible he tried to do nothing which he might not otherwise have reasonably done, without that knowledge.

With half an eye on the mid and long-term game, Lucius _had_ extended an invitation (via intermediaries) to James Potter, with offer of truce, to attend Malfoy Manor to discuss his possible recruitment as a Death Eater by some 'friends of Lucius' (of course Lucius could hardly publicly admit to an Order of the Phoenix member that he himself was one) – but Potter had declined. Ah well, his loss. Lucius had been thinking about discussing Death Eater raiding tactics for a place such as Godric's Hollow, to make Potter think twice about ever moving there, fidelius or not, but those words were never going to be spoken now.

Severus Snape was an interesting case for Lucius. In his hourglass experience, he knew that the man had somehow persuaded Dumbledore to vouch for him as an agent of his own immediately after Hallowe'en of 1981, but had then apparently switched back to the Dark Lord's side after the tri-wizard tournament and the Dark Lord's return. Lucius wasn't completely sure which side his old friend Severus _was_ on. Maybe like the 19th century muggle politician, Talleyrand, Severus worked for whichever side he perceived to be in the ascendency at the present. Since the man currently showed no sign of being anything other than a loyal Death Eater, Lucius had grounds neither to report him to the Dark Lord for treachery, nor to approach him as a possible channel of information to Albus Dumbledore.

The fateful October of 1981 rolled around, and as the month drew to a close, Lucius managed to be one of the few Death Eaters lingering in just the right place when the (disguised to the point of being unrecognisable) probable Peter Pettigrew brought the news of the Potters' location to the Dark Lord. Lucius had managed to time things such that he was actually in the room when the treacherous secret keeper told Voldemort where the Potters were based, so in theory the Potters' _fidelius_ charm would not keep Lucius out now, either.

The Dark Lord was excited by the news, and started making plans to attack at a time on the evening of Hallowe'en when the secret-keeper thought the Potters would be least likely to have company.

At this point, Lucius interjected with his only significant attempt to derail how he thought events might play out, suggesting that perhaps the Dark Lord _might_ simply take the child and use him to either blackmail the parents or to lure the Order of the Phoenix into a trap when they attempted to retake him.

"You do not understand, Lucius." Voldemort seemed amused by Lucius' proposal. "I am done with playing games with the Potters. Severus has requested I spare the mudblood as a plaything for him, and if she does not inconvenience me too much I shall do so. But the father and the son will _die_ tonight. I need to defeat this prophesised child as soon as possible, both to remove a threat from my path and to again remind the old families who align themselves still with that fool Dumbledore that I will not hesitate to utterly extinguish even the most respected of lines if they work so brazenly against my interests."

Oh well, Lucius thought. At least the reprimand had been a relatively mild one for daring to suggest an alternative course of action which had _not_ found favour. He duly bowed out, and left the Dark Lord to consider his impending raid, then went home to arrange his own plans for the evening… Lucius couldn't interfere further in this, at least before Voldemort went off on his raid, since if the attack failed but the Dark Lord survived he was hardly in a position to deal with Voldemort's ire if he himself were identified as the source of a leak.

* * *

Lucius had kept Narcissa out of things as much as possible up until now. When Lucius felt the shock in his dark mark which indicated something catastrophic had happened to the Dark Lord, the moment had however arrived to involve her. He had kept her up with him, ostensibly to await news of the Dark Lord's triumph. He looked at his mark which had gone very dark, and was now fading speedily.

"Cissy." He addressed his wife. "I believe our moment has come. Direct the house-elves to tend Draco, and then prepare to come on a trip with me. Speed is of the essence."

Depending on how closely the house was watched, and how much the decaying _fidelius_ would hold things up, Lucius now had a _very_ small window of opportunity to position himself and the Malfoys whilst the world reeled in shock from the momentous events which had just come to pass.

Narcissa, bless her, didn't question but took one look at his face and simply did as he'd asked of her. Half a minute later Narcissa was ready, and he apparated himself and his wife to Godric's Hollow.

Lucius had spent months studying the settlement, and unhindered by anything left of the _fidelius_ put himself and Narcissa down outside the garden gate of the Potter residence and any surviving anti-apparition wards the Dark Lord or the Potters might have emplaced. Narcissa blinked and squinted, then shook her head.

"Is there something here, Lucius?" she asked.

"It's a building under _fidelius_." he told her. He frowned. "We're in Godric's Hollow. You'll have to wait here, until and unless the charm breaks up completely. Disillusion yourself in case anyone else arrives."

He swept through the gate, up the garden path, and through the broken door into the building, and immediately came upon the body of James Potter. From somewhere upstairs the shrieking of at least one infant was audible. Lucius, however, did not rush straight up there, but instead paused to confirm that James was dead, then he did a speedy check of the ground floor. He had little desire to be surprised by anything or anyone emerging from another room once the truly important business of the evening was underway, and whoever was upstairs was apparently healthy enough to continue to cry. He found nobody else on the ground floor, so he hurried upstairs, muttering a charm against smoke and fire as he did so. There was a distinct smell of materials combusting noticeable in the air.

He checked the other upper floor rooms first, avoiding occasional flames with ease, before he was ready to move on to that from which the shrieking was apparently emanating. Again, he found nobody elsewhere, so he entered the last room – which looked to be fitted out as a nursery. The floor was smashed and crumpled here in one place, as if an explosion had taken place at that spot, and lying there were tattered remains of a cloak much like the Dark Lord's and the Dark Lord's wand. This seemed to be the origin point of the fires now flickering in the upper floor. A short distance away, sprawled on the floor unmoving, was Lily Potter. Lucius helped himself to the Dark Lord's wand, checked the body of Lily Potter and found her dead, then headed amongst the licking flames and smoke for the cradles in the corner.

There was not one infant here, but two. Harry Potter, as Lucius expected, a year or so old with a bleeding lightning bolt cut on his forehead, and another child, maybe only a few days old, who by the manner of dress was a girl. There had been no such child in his hourglass experience as far as he could recall.

Had she been swept quietly under the carpet in his hourglass experience, deceased or removed to parts unknown, or had things which he _had_ been doing caused the Potters to procreate again? Or was this some other child they had been babysitting?

Lucius cursed at this unexpected development, then levitated them both out of their cribs, and with him down the stairs to where Narcissa was waiting outside.

"I can almost see the building normally." The invisible Narcissa said, as he came out. "Lucius! What have you got there?" He could hear the surprise in her voice as she caught sight of the levitating infants.

"Take them both and get out of here. Go back to Malfoy Manor. They are now under your protection. Under no circumstance allow anyone except me into the Manor, and do not permit anyone to remove _either_ of these children from your care. Defy even my father if you have to do so. The Dark Lord has fallen, and we need to position ourselves to advantage in the new circumstances. I need to go back into this building to check for other clues as to what has been going on."

Narcissa took the children, and disapparated.

Lucius turned around and headed back into the building.

* * *

Lucius didn't have much time, he knew. The leader of the Order of the Phoenix _must_ have had some means of monitoring either this location or the life-signs of the Potters, fidelius charm or not, and someone was almost certainly on the way to investigate. There was a photo on the living-room mantelpiece of a smiling Lily with the new infant which had scribbled on the back of it 'Lily and Cynthia Jasmine Potter, October 18th, 1981'. He pocketed that.

He discovered a mahogany wand in the bathroom, which he thought might be James', and a willow wand in the kitchen which he thought might be Lily's. Apparently the idiots had been so relaxed under the illusory protection of the _fidelius_ that they hadn't even kept their wands on them, but left them casually lying around the house. He had pocketed the wands, grabbed, shrunk, and stowed about his person a few more family photos and mementoes, and was headed back outside when the roar of a motorbike arriving shook the street. It was that oaf of a groundskeeper Hagrid, who stopped and gaped, seeing a house with smoke coming out of the upper floor windows, and a man with a wand running out the broken front-door.

For what it was worth, it _was_ night-time and Lucius' face was partially masked by the charm to protect him from smoke and fire. His long blond hair was likely to be highly suggestive though to anyone that Hagrid talked to, and it had just become inevitable that unless forestalled aurors _would_ come calling at Malfoy Manor at some point in the near future.

At least Hagrid hadn't seen him with the children, which would have had the hunt up _immediately_.

Lucius charged straight at Hagrid, causing the half-giant to gape and hesitate further, and at the last moment before he collided with Hagrid, he was outside the gate and any wards and able to apparate away.

* * *

"The Dark Lord has fallen, father. He went to attack the Potters tonight and did not survive. This is his wand." Lucius tossed it on the table for his father, Abraxas Malfoy, to see for himself. Upon returning to Malfoy Manor Lucius had decided to get the necessary confrontation with his father out of the way as fast as possible. "Both James and Lily Potter are dead, but we now have their children, Harry and Cynthia." Cynthia probably owed the Malfoys her life. A burning roof beam had given way and smashed through the crib she had been in earlier as Lucius made his second tour of the house. Hagrid would have come too late to save her. "I have a plan, father, for dealing with this situation, in such a way as to position the Malfoy family as best as possible. I will need to make public statements to distance myself from the Death Eaters, however, and in order to keep Albus Dumbledore guessing I will need to say some nice things about a muggle-born witch. There is an opportunity for tremendous political advantage, if we can retain possession of the Potter children too. If you have any plan prepared which you wish to implement, however, I am prepared to go along with it, father, if you outline it _now_."

"No, Lucius. I have no plan for such an eventuality as this." Abraxas Malfoy shook his head slowly. "If you have something worked out which guards the Malfoy interests, I will let you take the lead in this."

"Thank-you, Sir." Lucius nodded. "Now, we need to floo-call the editor of the _Daily Prophet_ and get a reporter out, at once, so we can get _our_ version of the events of tonight in tomorrow morning's _Prophet_. If we are fortunate, being first with news, our word will carry the most weight. We will also need to arrange legal representation, since I am going to have to explain away as fast as possible to the Wizengamot my involvement with the Death Eaters, and if I present myself to them rather than wait for aurors to turn up to arrest me, things will look better. Finally, we need someone to track down Lily Potter's muggle relatives living at number 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, and get them to sign some papers I have had the goblins ready for me against this eventuality, to take them out of any legal battle for custody of the Potter orphans except as a contingency for cases where Cissy's cousin Sirius gets involved. If that agent could also prepare a brief report on those muggles' attitudes to magic, that would also be greatly helpful to our position…"

* * *

Accompanied by a legal representative, Lucius Malfoy turned up at the Ministry of Magic, demanding a trial before the Wizengamot for his association with the Death Eaters, at eleven o' clock in the morning of November the first. Every edition of the _Daily Prophet_ was being snapped up as it came off the presses right now; the _Daily Prophet's_ early edition reporting that Voldemort had been destroyed in a fight with 'Muggle-born witch, Lily Potter' over a mysterious prophecy had sold out despite the editorial staff doubling the size of the print run.

Lucius had tried to point the reason for Voldemort's fall at Lily Potter as much as he could. She _was_ responsible, in so far as he could determine, for what had happened, after all, and keeping attention on her kept it off the children and where they might be now? By eleven o' clock though, when he turned up at the ministry, the press was running 'The boy who defeated the Dark Lord and disappeared?' and focussing on Harry. A living half-blood baby boy who was the heir of a noble house was so much more _interesting_ a saviour for the wizarding world than a dead muggle-born witch, unfortunately. At least nobody in the press had got wind of the existence of a recently born sister who had vanished, too.

* * *

Lucius stood before the Wizengamot and named names. He was aware that he was making himself highly unpopular with a number of people, but as Voldemort had blown the first Wizarding War, Lucius didn't really fancy being on his side if and when – Merlin forbid – he managed to return. He did not name all the names he could have done, leaving those for others to try to use as bargaining chips, and not being an entirely selfish man he _did_ indicate that for all that he knew any number of the names he named could have been acting under the effects of the Imperius curse or in fact might have been imposters using polyjuice potion. With regret, at the end of the list, he indicated that there was 'one further name' he would decline to name, 'owing to an unfortunate family connection to my wife'. He wasn't _quite_ brave enough to outright name Bellatrix, and of course if Sirius chased after Peter Pettigrew, and was involved in the deaths of a street full of muggles the Wizengamot might figure he had avoided naming Sirius Black. He had not named Peter Pettigrew either, since (except in his hourglass experience) he had never yet actually seen the face of Voldemort's Order of the Phoenix mole who had betrayed the Potters – and _conceivably_ it might not have been Pettigrew 'this time'. Giving a name he was less than certain of could come back to bite him later, and was an unsound tactic.

"You have explained to us your involvement in the Death Eaters, and that when you sensed You-Know-Who's demise, you rushed straight to the scene to confirm it for yourself. So why exactly did you take the Dark Mark in the first place?" Bartemius Crouch's assistant who was in charge of this trial wanted to know of Lucius.

Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of his legal representative, Lucius had the privilege of not speaking under veritaserum today, being of rank and being co-operating with the Ministry.

He pointed at Albus Dumbledore.

"Along with at least one other, I was a spy for the headmaster of Hogwarts, who has been leading the Order of the Phoenix." Lucius said. "I have regularly met with Albus Dumbledore, to pass information on to him, under cover of delivering threats and blandishments from the Dark Lord."

He saw surprise, then a frown, and then a calculating expression rapidly cross Albus Dumbledore's face. Then the headmaster stood up, and adjusted his glasses.

"There is a considerable degree of truth in what he says." Albus Dumbledore backed up Lucius' story. "He and Severus Snape have indeed passed a good deal of useful information on to me. Whilst, alas, it was not possible to save all lives, a great deal of good has been done due to their association with me."

To claim he had been spying for Dumbledore was a calculated gamble on Lucius' part: If Dumbledore wanted to keep Severus out of Azkaban this time around by claiming him as a spy, then it was to Dumbledore's advantage to claim Lucius as a spy too. If such a figure in society as Lucius Malfoy was accepted as a spy and covert hero, his testimony would make it easier for the headmaster to keep Severus out of Azkaban.

The Wizengamot conferred, but between Malfoy influence and the bold approach Lucius had adopted by seizing the initiative, the result was never in much doubt. Lucius was pardoned for any involvement with the Death Eaters, and released, a free man.

Dumbledore stood up and requested that the Wizengamot arrange to consider the case of Severus Snape, too, as speedily as possible, clearly wanting to follow Lucius in striking whilst the iron was still hot and relief and jubilation at the fall of Voldemort was still in the air.

* * *

As Lucius left the Ministry, he was buttonholed by Dumbledore, who requested a 'discreet word back in my office at Hogwarts, this evening' if he would be so good? Lucius had little doubt Dumbledore wanted to find out what he was playing at, and to question him further on the scene in Godric's Hollow when he had arrived. Lucius agreed, since there were some things which he wanted to straighten out too, such as to what extent the headmaster would want to interfere with his own plans for Harry and Cynthia.

* * *

"I wish you had been a little plainer in your speaking, Lucius." the headmaster said that evening. Apparently, the old coot had been going back over every recent conversation he'd had with Lucius – probably in his pensieve – and picked up on at least some of the things which he'd missed.

"I was under the eye of Voldemort." Lucius responded, not bothering with other names or titles here. "He was a master legilimens. I couldn't be _too_ overt in case he decided to take a look at my memories of how an encounter went, and got suspicious."

"So why _were_ you actually trying to assist me against your supposed master?" Dumbledore asked.

"It became apparent to me that he was reckless, and wasteful of the lives of witches and wizards – even of supporters." Lucius said, choosing his words carefully. "One way or another, the war had been going on for far too long, and I wished to be of service to the winning side."

"That was very Slytherin of you, Lucius." Dumbledore said – leaving certain other things pointedly unsaid too.

"Why thank-you for the compliment, headmaster." Lucius smiled.

"Thank-you for not exposing Severus to Voldemort." Dumbledore said, abruptly switching the topic and speaking in a manner that indicated it was as much a question as a statement.

"I wasn't sure whose side Severus was on," Lucius shrugged, "or even if he _was_ your spy, but, from things which _were_ occasionally happening, it was clear to me that _someone_ who you were prepared to take apparently much more seriously than me was passing information on to you from within the Death Eaters. Voldemort may have suspected it too, given the occasional interviews and 'tests of loyalty' we were seemingly randomly subjected to this past year."

Dumbledore's face became much graver now, and Lucius could guess what was about to come.

"I have no wish to be indelicate, but reports have reached me that last night in Godric's Hollow a man who…" Dumbledore began, but was cut off, as Lucius put a number of copies of recently taken photos on his desk.

"I could hardly leave them in a burning building now, could I? Narcissa is quite attached to them already." Lucius said.

The headmaster took his time and examined the pictures of Harry and Cynthia, at home in the Malfoy mansion in a number of situations featuring a combination of Lucius, Narcissa, and their own son Draco. At last he looked up.

"Ah." said Dumbledore.

"I can also show you a couple of memories in your pensieve, if you like, of the house in Godric's Hollow. Your groundskeeper would have been too late to save at least one of them." Lucius continued.

"Ah." said Dumbledore again, looking _extremely_ thoughtful.

"I also have a preliminary report of the children's only known living relatives on Lily's side of the family, Petunia Dursley and her husband Vernon and their son Dudley." Lucius followed up, putting a copy on Dumbledore's desk. "Whilst blood relatives might make an obvious choice as carers, and non-wizarding ones could be considered a particularly _Slytherin_ move if they could be relied upon, apparently James Potter managed to irritate the hell out of the Dursleys, and they are quite hostile to those of magical birth. The Potters, with the exception of Harry and Cynthia themselves, are now extinct, and their closest wizarding relatives are the Blacks. Of course, Narcissa is a Black by birth, although so is Harry's godfather, Sirius."

Lucius saw Dumbledore actually wince at the mention of Sirius.

"Sirius is not an option." Dumbledore said slowly. Apparently Sirius was on his way to Azkaban then, without a trial, for betraying the Potters and blowing up muggles.

Lucius could practically hear the gears grinding in Dumbledore's head. He was certain that the man's instinct _was_ to try and deposit the Potters with Lily's sister and her family, for whatever weird reasons he might have, but that he recognised the Malfoys had active possession of the Potter children right now and it would be a long and hard fight to get them out of their custody for any reason that did not involve Sirius Black.

"Whilst the unexpected help you have offered is appreciated here, Lucius, there are bigger things at stake than the future of these children. There _was_ a prophecy and despite the actions of Harry, I believe that some day Voldemort will return and that Harry will have to step up to face him for all our sakes. I need to be sure that Harry is placed somewhere safe, and that he is raised suitably to fulfil the role the prophecy demands of him."

"With respect, headmaster, irrespective whether we have seen the last of Voldemort or not, I believe it was _Lily_, not Harry, who defeated Voldemort this time." Lucius said. "At the cost of her own life, by a means not yet determined, but it is nonsense, no matter what the press may say, to credit Harry with his defeat. And _Lily_ has shown us that, prophecy or not, other witches or wizards can take him down."

_Merlin_, Lucius thought. Dumbledore was proving at least as obsessed with the prophecy as Voldemort had been.

"I do not believe in this prophecy, headmaster," Lucius continued, "or at least not this interpretation which you are putting on it. I _do_ believe that the Malfoys can provide a good family home for a pair of war-orphans, and ensure that they grow up knowing of their heritage and the wizarding world."

"Whilst I enjoy an invigorating discussion, Lucius, and this could certainly be one, I'm serious about the prophecy." The headmaster countered.

"What makes you think I'm being any less sincere?" Lucius asked. "We both can imagine lots of ulterior motives for what we're telling each other we want to do, I suspect. However, in the end I'd rather not fight you on this, because I doubt I want to see Voldemort back any more than you would if your prophecy left you any leeway for such optimistic thoughts. But I _will_ fight you Albus, if I have to. Look at the photos on your desk again. It's about family."

The headmaster went through the photos again, slowly, looking puzzled, and then through them yet again, searching for what he was apparently missing, and then he finally stopped at one of Narcissa in profile, with Cynthia.

"She was crying, headmaster, because she was a child scarcely two weeks old, if that, and she was hungry, and Narcissa just acted completely naturally with her. My wife will kill me if I let you take the Potters away from us. She has accepted them into the family in one of the oldest traditional ways when dealing with orphaned infants."

"I don't doubt your determination to win, Lucius, but I could still make things _very_ awkward for you." Dumbledore said. "For me not to seek to do so, I will look for certain promises of behaviour, including your word that you will protect them, at least until they are of Hogwarts age, from any undue publicity, and although I cannot dictate your domestic behaviour I would appreciate it if you tried to moderate your language and attitudes at home when it comes to terms such as 'mudblood'."

"I'm prepared to be flexible in my opinions generally given that a muggle-born witch just bludgeoned Voldemort off the field without apparently even lifting her wand." Lucius allowed. "And I will, of course, _never_ insult the children's parents in their hearing unless I am under duress. However, if the children ever ask, if they seem mature enough then Narcissa _will_ explain to them just why Voldemort was after them in the first place, including that a spy had relayed part of a prophecy to him, even though myself and Narcissa do not believe in that prophecy."

They haggled and dickered a bit over terms, but Albus Dumbledore had grasped that thanks to Narcissa this was a battle Lucius would fight to the very bitter end if need be, and the Hogwarts headmaster was too much of a pragmatist to put effort into a battle he had apparently decided was not absolutely essential to whatever plan of campaign he had decided to fight. He did insist – since Draco was Severus Snape's godson anyway – that Severus (once the formality of his Death Eater trial was dealt with) would check on Harry and Cynthia whenever he popped by the Manor, and he made it clear he wanted Severus himself to have a chance to explain to the Potter children just why he had been working for Voldemort, if his role with regard to the prophecy came up. Lucius noted that Dumbledore conveyed the impression that he regarded Severus as absolutely reliable and loyal to him, though he was undoubtedly a heartless bastard with regard to Severus if he expected him to have to explain someday to the children of the Potters just why he had reported the prophecy which had spelled their birth parents' doom. That was interesting.

As Lucius was feeling relatively benign, having got everything he wanted of the headmaster, he permitted the man to accompany him on a trip into Lucius' memories of the building in Godric's Hollow the previous evening.

"You helped yourself to some items, Lucius?" Dumbledore asked.

"Things the children might appreciate when they're older. At some point – if you and anyone from the ministry department with responsibility don't mind – I'd like to send a salvage team over to pick over the wreckage and retrieve anything of value or possible use to Harry and Cynthia."

"That seems not unreasonable." Dumbledore concurred. "I would, however, like possession of Voldemort's wand. The wands of past dark lords tend to be viewed as highly desirable trophies of a certain unpleasant element of the magical population, and _should_ Voldemort return in some manner – with the aid, perhaps, of followers more fanatic than yourself – it would be highly useful bait for a trap."

"With Voldemort having been conquered by Lily, I believe it should go to her children, once they are of age, for _them_ to decide what to do with it." Lucius riposted. "Although I would not object to it being kept in a Gringotts special vault in the meantime which – before the Potters come of age – can be accessed only by a combination of yourself or a delegated representative and myself or a delegated representative. That is to say, we both have to agree to retrieve the wand if the Potters are not of age."

"The ministry would be grateful to us and to the Potter children, I believe, if we were to turn it over to them as a trophy." Dumbledore switched arguments.

"The ministry should be grateful enough for other things, and I do not trust the ministry not to 'lose' it at some point. The goblins would make far better guardians for an item so essential to Voldemort's ability to operate."

They politely argued a bit more over the wand, but in the end Dumbledore conceded to Lucius' proposed compromise of a joint accessed Gringotts vault, with a couple of wrinkles and specifications as to identification and access requirements added on.

* * *

After such a pleasant start to the evening, it was of course inevitable that Lucius would return home to find his deranged sister-in-law, Bellatrix, had come to call and was arguing with Narcissa.

"Lucius." Bellatrix drawled, pulling her wand out at once and turning it on him. Narcissa, Lucius noted, went every still. "And there you were, the perfect Death Eater, or so I thought, whilst it turned out that all along you were one of Dumbledore's spies."

"I quite enjoyed winding him up." Lucius said. "I dropped the man subtle hints, repeatedly, and the old idiot ignored them. It was quite delicious, Bella." he dropped into a chair and summoned a house-elf to fetch him a drink. "I confess I fed the great fool information which had he had the wits to employ it, should have wound the war up amazingly fast, and he _ignored_ it, or acted against it. I have just come back from a polite gloating session with the old coot, and he appeared to have been going over everything I said to him in his pensieve. He seemed quite pained by the results. However, as a result of my months of careful Dumbledore-baiting, I have managed to ensure that my family has survived the Dark Lord's lamentable setback – and above and beyond that I have achieved other things, _too_, not least of which is that the Dark Lord's wand will _not_ be snapped but will be held in partial Malfoy custody. If the Dark Lord ever returned some day, do you think he would be pleased, Bella, to learn that his wand had been destroyed?"

"You mean _when_ the Dark Lord returns." Bellatrix scowled. "However, admittedly if you are correct, the point _is_ a good one."

"I have also prevented Dumbledore from seizing control of the heirs of the woman who somehow managed to cause the Dark Lord such trouble last night. I have no doubt at all that had Dumbledore done so he would have hidden them away somewhere, to indoctrinate them to his way of thinking and to raise them as weapons to do his bidding in the future. Instead of being placed where the muggle-loving fool Dumbledore wanted them disposed, they will be raised here at Malfoy Manor, by myself and your own sister, and tutored in _proper_ wizarding values."

"The boy was a prophesised menace. He should be dead." Bellatrix growled.

"Unless the Dark Lord had recently discovered the entirety of the prophecy and was acting upon that, we cannot be certain that the boy _would_ have been a menace had the Dark Lord not acted as he did. Indeed, the full prophecy might reveal a course of action to take which would have ensured that the Dark Lord was still present with us now. And as it is, we cannot be entirely certain that the prophecy was not referring to another child altogether – the Longbottom boy was also born at the end of last July, after all, and there were no doubt many children born this past July, some of whose parents may have defied the Dark Lord. And unlike that fool Dumbledore, I maintain that the events of last night prove nothing with regard to the prophecy. It was the boy's mother, not the boy, who seemed to have done the damage."

Apparently the notion of not wanting to appear to agree with Dumbledore was sufficient to get Bellatrix off the topic of the Potter son for now, and she seized on a different topic.

"The Longbottoms." Bellatrix's expression turned to one of hatred. "The impudent family no doubt think themselves safe in this time of the Dark Lord's abeyance. Well, he still has some faithful servants willing to act in his name, to smite his enemies…"

She fingered her wand and then just like that, Bellatrix was gone.

Lucius took a long look at his wife, and for the first time allowed some degree of the stress he felt to show on his face.

"She wouldn't have hurt the children." Narcissa said. "Not until they came of age or unless the Dark Lord ordered it. I _am_ her sister, and they are at least half-bloods and under my protection."

"I'm afraid, that despite my not naming her, Bellatrix may soon find herself in Azkaban. I'm sorry, Cissy." Lucius said.

* * *

Author Notes:

As far as I know, in canon Voldemort doesn't actually start any fires when he kills himself with a backfiring curse on Hallowe'en 1981, nor does Hagrid arrive at Godric's Hollow on the motorbike. And by the time that Lucius Malfoy is thrown into Azkaban in 1996 after the failed Ministry raid, the dementors have gone elsewhere. These are all artistic liberties which I have taken which likely (in deviating from canon) have nothing to do with Lucius having foreknowledge of events.

I'm not sure of the date Sirius Black was arrested for blowing up muggles and Peter Pettigrew in canon, but it's possible it wasn't as soon as November the first. It was convenient for me, from the point of view of not drawing the Lucius/Dumbledore negotiations out over several days, to assume it happened on November the first, and that Dumbledore had got news of it by the time Lucius arrived for his evening interview.

Harry having a younger sister born in this timeline might be down to a 'butterfly effect' from something which Lucius has been doing (possibly in his interactions with Dumbledore).

I'm aware that the Lucius Malfoy I've portrayed here is probably more charming and less haughty than is seen in canon, but then again he _is_ dealing with relatives and a wizard at least his political equal (Albus Dumbledore) who he wants things out of... Canon is largely seen from the perspective of Harry Potter, and situations like this are things which canon harry never sees Lucius Malfoy operating in.

This particular version of Lucius Malfoy (once the Wizarding War is over and Voldemort clearly lost) is quite happy to abandon blood-purity ideology in the interests of advancing his causes, generally. Being guardian of The-Boy-Who-Lived (and his sister) is such a big thing that it's worth publicly abandoning 'the cause' for an easier time with it.

That's it for this story. With the Wizarding War over but the Malfoys now guardians of the Potter children, Lucius having foreknowledge and the opportunities for him to take advantage of it are just about done with things so significantly starting to change. Bellatrix going to Azkaban for going after the Longbottoms is probably about the last significant point likely to stick to canon. Everything else is up in the air...


End file.
